A border patrol agent has been shot dead near the United States border with Canada just hours after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The agent was shot about 3.15pm on Monday in Newport, Vermont, while performing a traffic stop, authorities said.
Police have reportedly identified two suspects, one of whom was shot dead, according to Fox.
The incident sparked the immediate closure of sections of Interstate 91 as authorities launched an investigation.
The FBI are assisting with the investigation and motorists have been warned to find a different route.
It comes just hours after President Trump returned to the White House on the back of a hard line campaign vowing to deport migrants who made it inside the US.
On day one of his presidency, Trump began signing a swathe of executive orders – 10 of which related to the southern border and illegal immigration crisis.
The number of immediate actions underscore the importance of immigration policy to Trump’s second term.
He is declaring a national emergency at the southern border.
‘All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will being the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,’ Trump said in his Monday address.
Trump is also ending catch-and-release, a policy that allowed illegal border crossers seeking asylum to be detained and then released within the country as they awaited a court date.
He is reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy that makes illegal border hoppers wait in the last country where they crossed from, which is most often Mexico, as they wait for a court date to make their asylum claims.
The major border town El Paso, Texas, temporarily closed its border crossings Monday around Trump’s swearing-in ceremony.
Authorities in riot gear with shields and full body armor were photographed standing guard at the border crossings.
More to come